REARDON: Climate Change Isn't Causing More Hurricanes

Let’s remember one thing that most of the mainstream media won’t tell you: CLIMATE CHANGE ISN’T CAUSING MORE HURRICANES.

As Hurricane Florence makes its way over the Carolinas and eastern seaboard this weekend, let’s remember one thing that most of the mainstream media won’t tell you: CLIMATE CHANGE ISN’T CAUSING MORE HURRICANES. It’s not even increasing the intensity of hurricanes.

Sure, the Washington Post editorial board this week had the audacity to blame President Trump and Republicans for pulling out of the Paris Climate treaty and being “anti-science." But who is *really* “anti-science?”

As Dr. Roy Spencer, a former NASA scientist, has written on his blog, the number of major hurricanes making landfall in the U.S. has dropped by an average of more than 50% since the 1930s. You remember the 1930s, don’t you? The year in which the big gas-guzzling four-wheel drive trucks and SUVs were introduced. That’s sarcasm for folks who need a little help here.

It’s hilarious that the climate change alarmists claim that those of us who want to rationally look at the effects of climate change are called kooks and science “deniers." It’s true that hurricane damage is up dramatically since the 1930s, but much of that is due to a huge increase in “vulnerable infrastructure in a more prosperous nation." If you’d like to see some actual facts on this, check out this book by Roger Peilke Jr.

The same claims that irresponsible and biased media outlets (SEE: St. Louis Post-Dispatch) have made about hurricanes they’ve made about tornadoes. Those claims were effectively debunked many years ago in this piece by physicist Richard Muller in The New York Times.

Muller, by the way, is a former climate change skeptic who now believes that we are making the climate worse. But he’s honest and smart enough to debunk some of the nonsense out there that gets repeated time and time again by silly newspaper editorial boards (SEE: St. Louis Post Dispatch).

I’m not a climate change denier. I’m what some call a “luke-warmer." I think humankind is contributing to a certain level of changes in global temperatures. But the amount we contribute compared to natural forces is still a big question mark. An even bigger question: What if ANYTHING we can possibly do about it outside of adapting. Even the founder of modern day climate change hysteria James Hansen blasted the Paris accord as a “fraud.” Hansen admits that the deal struck in Paris would barely scratch the surface when it comes to reducing global temperatures by the end of this century.

Let’s keep the folks getting battered by Hurricane Florence in our thoughts and prayers this weekend—and let’s reject all of the climate-change-Chicken-Little-sky-is-falling scare tactics. I’m talking to you, Al Gore.